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herbhalstead

Have you ever thought about changing hosting providers but hesitated because it seems like a such huge undertaking? Well, I recently took on the daunting task of moving GeekRev to a new hosting provider. But, it wasn’t as daunting as you might think. In fact it’s pretty easy, but it can take a long time. @seventy8prod suggested that I write a post detailing what I did. So, here it is. Enjoy (after the break). Continue Reading…

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GeekRev.com is not, by any means, one of those blessed sites that get millions of hits a month. But, our traffic levels are pretty good, and very “qualified.” In marketing, “qualified” sources refers to those sources that specifically come to your site on purpose. There are a lot of ways traffic becomes qualified. For instance, someone can specifically come to your site from a business card, word of mouth, or something similar – because they know for sure that your site has the information they need. Qualified traffic can also come from very specific search-engine queries. Most people come to this site on purpose. But a few months ago, I noticed our traffic was quickly declining. Something was wrong and I was not sure what it was. Continue Reading…

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Canon is selling refurbished T3i bodies for $335.99! That is the best price I have seen for this camera, refurb or not. Even though the current generation of this camera is the T4i, I still think the T3i is the best bang for the buck DSLR, and I think it is the best DSLR camera for beginners. Here’s the link: Canon Direct Store- EOS Rebel T3i Body Refurbished.

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I’ve been a fan of Apple’s Airplay technology for a very long time. Not that I’ve personally used it much at all. I do not have an Apple TV, and I have not upgraded the OS on my iPhone to take advantage of it fully. Honestly, so far, the extent of my use is pushing music to the church’s house sound system. So, while I am a huge fan of the technology I am not a big user. However, many of the ministry leaders are using it much better than I am. So why am I, a big fan, a non-user? Let’s talk about that after the break. Continue Reading…

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WordPress just updated their Jetpack plugin to allow native email publishing! In fact, this post is being published using the new feature.

The implementation is pretty robust, including the use of short-codes to add complexity and set options (i.e. post category, publishing delay, tags, etc.). There are several short-codes implemented. For instance, you can add a PollDaddy.com poll using short-codes. Pretty awesome!

I did notice a few short-codes that I think they missed, like the ability to set a featured image. You can include images, which will be posted inline (single image) or as a gallery (multiple images).

Overall, I think it is a great implementation. I am sure they’ll improve it.

Email publishing is not the only feature added to Jetpack. WordPress also added the ability to natively connect to social networks. For instance, this will allow you to post an excerpt on your Facebook page whenever you write a new blog post.

UPDATE: After emailing this post, I noticed that the category short-code did not take. Also, after reading more about the polls, I think that feature is currently limited to WordPress.com installs, not self-hosted unless you install the PollDaddy Plugin (I have not tested this).